Collider ranks classic horror books for their lasting influence and ability to explore fundamental fears through supernatural, psychological and Gothic storytelling.

– ‘The Turn of the Screw’ (1898) by Henry James is praised for its ambiguous ghost story, in which a governess may be facing spirits or losing trust in her own perceptions.
– Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination’ (1908) is highlighted for influential stories exploring madness, guilt, disease, obsession and death.
– Ray Bradbury’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ (1962) is noted as a dark small-town horror novel centred on two thirteen-year-old friends.